Hot on the heels of Greymatter's guest post and mix two weeks ago comes Scrimshire's 'Under the Influence with...' post and it is quite special. Adam decided to take the format and mix it up a bit which I do like. Great stories about his musical journey that brought him to the sounds he is making now and into the future. Much thanks to him for taking time out to share and after checking out his sounds below please do buy his music, go to a show, support, etc.
The latest album, Along came the Devil one night... , is out on Wah Wah (also home to other 'under the influencer's, Part-Time Heroes) and features artists including Jake Telford, Lorinc Barabas, Stac, Rob
Hynd, Inga-Lill Aker, Claire Laurent, Jack Baker, Paul Hodson and Ben
Thackray, it is in parts jazz, parts soul, parts folk.
Honored to have this post here today and look forward to some very special guests in the near future also.
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I guess I always do this but I’m going to start by making an excuse. I’m not what you would call a digger. I didn’t really start picking up records until just a few years ago and I’ve only really begun to deviate more from the mainstream in the last 8 years, especially since meeting some of the incredible people I’m lucky enough to call friends here in the UK and around the world that constitute this lovely music community.
So this is an honest declaration of what got me here, please let me off any howlers, there’s nowt cool about it. In fact the coolest thing I probably ever bought was this when I was about 6 – I saved up for it…
Having said that, we listened to more music than we watched TV in our house and living with my Nan and Gramp as well as my Bro, Mum and Dad there was a fair variety of stuff…
Stevie Wonder – Hotter Than July
My mum played a fair bit of Stevie. Songs in the Key, Musiquarium (one of the best artist compilations there is? Maybe.) and Hotter were the ones that got the most play and still resonate with me to this day – although at a push I would probably now tell you that Talking Book is my favourite Stevie album (or is it Fulfillingness’ First Finale?).
The pure joy and love that comes out of even his darkest moments has always been an inspiration, and the sounds, the production. Lovely. Stevie has been at the centre of more happy moments than most in my life. I nearly passed out at the 02 from being so happy last year, Visions into Golden Lady was immense but I nearly fell to my death when he played Do I Do. Amazing.
Bjork – Post
I didn’t get Debut. I just didn’t understand it – I don’t know why, it’s not hard. But then came Post. I was determined to get into it and early snippets of Hyperballad had got me very interested indeed. But I can tell you exactly where I was and what went through my mind the moment I heard the string break in Isobel for the first time. It changed a lot of things for me and since that moment Bjork has been one of the most important musicians in my world.
And it’s more than the music, I find her constant commitment to moving forward and exploring, deeply inspiring. I like the fact that there have been one or two moments (some of the Inuit throat singing on Medulla to be precise, because it makes me feel like I’m hyperventilating) I find really hard to listen too. Music shouldn’t be an easy ride and I like the excitement I still feel when I pick up her new album.
Jamiroquai/Galliano/Young Disciples/Brand New Heavies/Incognito (Talkin’ Loud, Acid Jazz, The Master Cuts compilations and beyond…)
I’m lumping this all together. There was a point in our household when these names were the ones who were on my mum, dad and brother’s CD selections. They all got a fair rinsing in the car and at home and we loved it. They also represent the point when I deviated and began discovering the world of Jazz beyond the trad jazz that would grace the CD player on a Sunday afternoon.
Because of Jamiroquai I discovered Johnny Hammond’s Los Conquistadores Chocolate and that was a serious turning point for me. A journey began, which was reinforced by something else that happened around that time…
Julian Thomas – music teacher
Julian turned up teaching music at my secondary school and while he didn’t teach me he was wondering past a practice room one day and heard a tape of some of my music (I’d been writing for about 18 months to a year). The following day he bought me 3 or 4 cassettes he believed should be essential to me… 4 albums of Herbie Hancock and Headhunters music. Thank you Julian!
Incidentally he was also a killer Rhodes player and taught me how to drop a left hand note and move on to make a 7th chord. And I can’t stop playing that actual chord every time I sit down to play my Rhodes to this very day. Thank you Julian.
Ahmed Jamal/Errol Garner/Oscar Peterson
Pianists, the lot of them. But also, early jazz heroes. Music I felt a genuine connection to. Errol Garner my Gramp absolutely loved, much to my Nan’s (possibly slightly humorously overstated) displeasure – you see, Errol is quite the grunter and moaner. In fact some of Wimbledon’s brightest female stars could learn a thing from Mr Garner. Later I would gravitate to the innovation of Miles the more spiritual sounds of Alice Coltrane. But early on and still now this is where it was for me.
But in our house there was jazz of a few styles, big band, small band, cardboard box. The sounds of Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald and personal favourite Dinah Washington regularly rang out at our house.
Saturday Night on Mercia Sound, Beggars Banquet, Brit Funk, Smooth 80s Soul and beyond…
I
was born in Rugby, lived the first four years of my life in the
Coventry area and on Saturday nights my mum and dad popped a tape in
and recorded Saturday Night on Mercia Sound. They bashed out the
fusion, the brit funk and jazz funk. We loved it. Tapes and tapes of it.
This stuff still really rings with me, alongside the smoothness of 80s George Benson and Luther Vandross. I love it. Give me a little Sherrick/Shalamar and I’ll be happy.
Honourable mentions
- Beck taught me to break any rule you don’t like.
- Motown taught me about songwriting as did the very important Burt Bacharach and Hal David (I can’t believe I haven’t given them their own section).
- Marvin Gaye taught me that I didn’t like my mum listening to records with sex noises in them while I was in the room.
- Terry Callier introduced me to the simple beauty of acoustic soul music.
- And the Cinematic Orchestra encouraged my desire to work with strings.
- DJ Shadow – just because – wow, beats.
I’ve undoubtedly forgotten something really important
But what can you do? I had a think recently and decided that my favourite song of all time was either Green Eyes by Erykah Badu, Water No Get Enemy by Fela Kuti or Golden Lady by Stevie Wonder.
Cheers.
Adam
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Download Warm sound (feat. Inga-Lill Aker)
Download Along came the devil one night...
Buy the album: Kudos (UK), Dusty Groove (US), iTunes
For more of Scrimshire's music go here.
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